In the article “For me, being Latino means living between two worlds” by Brian De Los Santos he speaks on his challenges that he faced with himself growing up being a Mexican-American. He says how at school he always identified himself as just American. Santos says being American to him meant “reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, learning about the war of 1812 in history class, and watching blockbuster hits with friends.” He goes on to say how when he got home it was a different story, his mom would be cooking traditional mexican dishes such as enchiladas en salsa verde and forcing him to call his abuela.
I feel that us Latinos who live here in the United States and go to school here can all relate to how he does not know whether he feels he is not entirely from Mexico but he also does not feel entirely American. Nowadays, it can be tough to to feel like you belong in a certain culture, especially when it comes to being in the Mexican- American cultures.
From my experiences when visiting my family in Mexicali you can sort of feel the judgement, they judge you because you speak English and live on the other side. They do not see you as being as mexican as them even though you also speak spanish and come from the same things that they do. This is something I believe that we Mexican-Americans all face, we are called “pochos” and are made fun of or they make jokes about us. On the other hand some Americans will still do the same. Some Americans will not accept you because you speak spanish and are from that Mexican culture, so that leaves us wondering where do we fit in?
In his article, Santos explains how he got over his identity crisis when his mother told him he was born in Mexico and eventually decided he would always introduce himself as Mexican. Something interesting he mentions is when he says “ there is no denying that Latinos are changing politics, entertainment, and the culture of this country.” I believe that it is a very important point he makes, especially with the politics because of how much we see Latinos are mentioned by Trump and everything about the wall and immigration. It is important that we are represented in the right light and the only way to do that is to get our messages out through articles such as this one! We Latinos make such an impact in the world around us, like Santos says in the article we change the culture of this country. We change the culture by bringing in our all our different dishes and words from our native language.
Santos lets us know that the U.S. Latino population is at 57 million and still growing, he adds that we have even surpassed the whites as being the largest ethnic group! We should all never feel out of place, we all belong, viva la raza!
References:
“For me being Latino means living between two worlds” by Brian De Los Santos
URL: https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-hispanic-heritage-month-20160916-snap-htmlstory.html
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